Who Are You Sleeping On?

It is the start of November and the campaign is just beginning. Not the presidential campaign (no one wants to read about that), but rather the start of the NBA season.

Yes! It has finally arrived.

We are about a week into the season now and there are some things that we already know: The Celtics, Lakers, and Hornets are really good, the Nuggets have traded Allen Iverson to the Pistons, and the Bobcats, Knicks, Grizzlies, and Thunder are terrible. So without further ado I will now announce my sleeper team for the 2008-09 NBA season.

With the first overall selection in the 2008-09 sleeper draft, I select the Toronto Raptors. I would love to pick my team, the Bucks, but honestly I just don’t see it. They are a team in progress who will surely get better as the season goes on, but right now they are slow on defense and struggling to score in the half-court offense. So I’ve decided to go with a slightly more established team in the Toronto Raptors.

A lot of people have forgotten about the old Canadian team and the trade that they made prior to this year’s draft. They ditched minute-eater T.J. Ford and garbage (expiring contracts) for Jermaine O’Neal. So now the always inconsistent Andrea Bargnani can come off the bench and O’Neal can be a physical force and cause plenty of match-up problems for opposing teams.

I see O’Neal as very similar to a young Rasheed Wallace; at least as far as situations go (he doesn’t have as nice of a shot). Basically O’Neal was supposed to be “the man” in Indiana where he endured all of the criticism and only some praise. He was also a part of “The Brawl” that a lot of Indiana fans could not forgive him for, and rightfully so.

Now he comes to a Toronto team as the second or third option offensively, and he can focus much more on the other end of the floor. He will rarely be depended on to take the bulk of the scoring, rather to protect the rim and take buckets when they come.

Similar to how Wallace blossomed when he was able to share leadership of the Pistons, I believe that O’Neal will be able to concentrate on basketball making him a far superior player than we have seen in recent years.

Another reason I believe the Raptors are poised for a big year is that Jose Calderon is now the point guard. He is one of the most efficient players in basketball. He is averaging nearly 10 assists per game with only 2.7 turnovers per game. Actually, those aren’t that good of numbers for him, but we are only three games into the season. Either way he is great at finding the open man and will be an improvement over the minutes that Ford formerly consumed.

Chris Bosh has been extremely impressive thus far. He isn’t showing any lag from the long summer, rather he appears to have developed a new attitude from playing on a U.S. Olympic team with the best basketball players in the world.

Mike Ganter from the Toronto Sun quoted Rap’s coach Sam Mitchell as saying, “(Bosh's) practices now are unbelievable," Mitchell gushed. "In the past, Chris would come in and not go through the motions, but do just enough. Now, every possession, every play is 100% all out."

Bosh has always had the skills to be one of the NBA’s elite, but now with a new attitude I see him competing for the MVP this season.

The only problem that could arise with the Raptors is depth. Their bench is susceptible, especially if an injury were to occur. Sharpshooter Jason Kapono can still shoot lights out and Bargnani is better off the bench, but still inconsistent. Come playoff time this will surely hurt them, but there are also plenty of veteran players to sign for half the season that can come in and give a team extra depth. However, that would put the Raptors over the luxury tax so that will need to be an organizational decision.

They will need extra depth for the playoffs and I suspect they will somehow achieve that because they have a very good chance to go deep into the playoffs this year. I’m predicting a trip to the second round for the Raptors, but the Celtics or Cavs will eventually be too much as the Raps lose in seven games.

We haven’t seen as interesting a Raptors team since the Vince Carter days, but now all their players actually want to be there so this should be a good season for the team way up north.